AltFi Toronto Summit 2018

5th December 2018

Toronto, an emerging global fintech hub, becomes the fifth city the Summit has visited over the years - the others being New York, Amsterdam, Sydney and its hometown of London.

The focus of the event will be to feature high profile speakers from the incredibly active fintech sectors in the UK and Europe - with a particular focus on digital banking, online lending and robo-advice - while also showcasing the best of Canadian fintech.

The key topic of the day will be Open Banking. The framework, which is in its first year in the UK, is being actively considered by Canadian policy-makers, and the Summit will provide the perfect opportunity for cross-border learning.

Make sure not to miss the After Party at the Pogue Mahone Pub and Kitchen, generously sponsored by our Global Partner OnDeck! The drinks kick off at 17:30 and venue details can be found further down on this page.

Sessions

Opening Remarks

Keynote

Dingle said the fintech ecosystem is a source of pride and also of positive growth for the existing financial sector in Canada.

Fintech companies, he added, bring with them a greater diversity of supply to everyday consumers and new services to the under-supplied and underbanked as well as encouraging incumbents to improve their offerings.

Playing catch up: Why Canadians have yet to realise the full benefits of fintech

Keynote

Graham said it is “something to be proud of” that three of the world’s 20 largest banks reside in Canada and that it largely managed to avoid a finanical crisis in 2008. However, he added that but there is a gap with other countries because “we don’t have any fintech unicorns” (yet).

This could be because fintech adoption has been slower and that in terms of regulation Canada does have Open Banking or PSD2-style regimes.

Toronto has, however, created more high tech jobs than any other city in North America in the past year as well as more financial services jobs.

A female founder on building a unicorn

Mustard says Klarna is moving towards “autonomous finance” where companies can find you better offers for financial products with less hassle.

Consumers, she adds, are more mobile than they have ever been before but credit data is not mobile between countries.

She said her own experiences and being a female founder helps to bring diversity to Klarna’s views and experiences but the firm also makes a big effort to sit down with people to understand how everyday folk manage their money.

Going global: Funding Circle's platform lending blueprint

Fireside Chat

Sanders said that data science is not just used in credit modeling by Funding Circle but also in others areas of the business including marketing which is all transferable into new markets and geographies.

He added that Funding Circle’s IPO was “a very exciting milestone” and will enable it to deliver more, but he also said it is just another fundraise and “step on the journey”.

Sanders emphasised that Funding Circle is “still very much in growth phase” despite now having the IPO behind them.

The ecosystem opportunity in Open Banking

Panel

Simoneschi said the mass adoption of Open Banking is being driven by use cases.

Steeley said that just because a potential borrower has a “thin file at the bureau” does not mean they are a thin file in transaction terms, meaning credit providers need only to crunch this data to make a lending decision they might otherwise dismiss.

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About AltFi

Altfi provides market-leading news, insights and data on the rapidly growing alternative finance and fintech world. Our core focus is on alternative lenders, including both peer-to-peer/marketplace lenders and direct lenders as well as investment in alternative credit, equity crowdfunding, challenger banks and robo-advice. In addition, AltFi runs major industry conferences and seminars globally, and our sister company AltFi Data is widely regarded as the premier source of institution-grade analytics for alternative finance.